New York-based health IT startup Vitals announces a $22 million Series C funding round that includes investments from Piper Jaffray Merchant Banking, Cardinal Partners, Health Enterprise Partners, Milestone Ventures Partners, and Greycroft. Vitals operates in the same space as ZocDoc, compiling physician reviews, healthcare cost data, and other information to help patients weigh their local options and make medical decisions based on both quality and cost

Long-term care health IT startup COMS Interactive — short for Clinical Outcomes Management System — has closed a $21 million funding round from Summit Partners to further enhance its product. Summit Managing Director Mark deLaar will join the company’s board. COMS is developing DaylightIQ to help clinicians working in assisted living facilities monitor and trend changes in patient condition and ability. Customers claim a 50 percent reduction in return-to-hospital rates and a 60 percent reduction in premature mortality after implementing it.

Miami, FL-based CareCloud closes a $20 million Series B round led by Tenaya Capital, a technology VC firm. Founded in 2011, CareCloud is differentiating itself in the highly saturated ambulatory EHR market by developing a homegrown, cloud-based solution and offering a pay-as-you-go contract.

New York-based Health Startup Medivo has announced a $15 million Series B round led by the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Safeguard Scientifics, and MentorTech Ventures. Founded in 2010 by the former CEO of MedSite, Medivo strives to provide health monitoring to connect doctors, consumers, and clinical labs. The applications are designed to help patients track key symptoms and labs and correlate the data with key behaviors like diet and medication compliance.

Aetna announces the release of an all-in-one quantified-self app dubbed CarePass. Intrigued by the announcement, Travis signed up and gives a first-hand review of the new platform in his post this week. The platform makes it easy to integrate data. Fitness apps, weight loss apps, activity trackers, glucometers, blood pressure cuffs, and self-reported information can be captured and uploaded. Medical records from across the continuum of care can also be stored on the site. With this data, Aetna will deliver individualized health services like a symptom checker or individualized health tips. Aetna will also release an API for third-party integration. Marking another first, Aetna will expose patient health information as part of that API, allowing consumers the ability to authorize access to third-party apps.

San Diego-based WellDoc unveils a patient-centered type 2 diabetes app that provides real-time behavioral, educational, and motivational coaching to help patients stick to their diabetes treatment plans. BlueStar requires a prescription from a physician. The cost will be covered by prescription benefit plans similar to other prescribed products.

Ringadoc announces a partnership with freeware EMR vendor Practice Fusion that will provide it direct access to more than 100,000 active monthly Practice Fusion physicians, which it will use to help support its call-based health Q&A platform. Ringadoc also announces the launch of an API that will provide third-party developers access to after-hours messages.

Surgeon and mHealth innovator Rafael Grossman, MD, FACS describes his experience with Google Glass and his ideas for developing medical applications for it. Examples: sharing live OR video, distance education, telemedicine, surgical back-up, and viewing EMR data without being distracted. He calls on the American College of Surgeons to lead the way in using Glass to improve healthcare.

An Apple video tells several stories of how its mobile ecosystem is impacting everyday patients across the globe through the rise of mHealth and medical apps.

White House Senior Advisor Ryan Panchadsaram, a former executive of Ginger.io and former Rock Health fellow, talks about patients accessing their electronic records at TEDMED 2013.

Travis covers the surprising decision by Basic to launch its first mobile health app on Android rather than iOS, a significant deviation from the norm. Meanwhile, globe-trekking Kyle Samani discusses the challenges international organizations may face as they embark on EHR implementations.

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Sponsor Updates

Imprivata walks away with the 2013 Best in KLAS award for single sign-on vendors.

HealthITJobs.com launches two mobile applications so healthcare IT professionals can search for employment on their smart phones.